Electric railway.



J. MAYER.

ELECTRIC RAILWAY. APPLICATION mam) sB'PT.

PATE'NTED AUG. 4, 1908;

inn

JOSEPH MAYER, or RUTHEBFORD, NEW JERSEY.

ELECTRIC RAE'LWAY.

No. ceases.

Specification ofLettere Patent.

Patented Aug. 4, 1903.

Application filed September 13, 1907. Serial No. 392,613.

To all whom it may concern: Be it known that I, JOSEPH MAYER, a citi- .zen of the United States, and a resident of Rutherford, in. the, county of Bergen and State of New Jersey, have invented a certa n new and useful 1m rovement in Electric Railways, of which t e following is-a specification.

The present invention relates to sliding bows intended for use on electric railways,

and more particularly to the sliding bows used on high speed electric railways, the ob;

ject of the invention being to reduce-the variations of pressure on the conductor due to the effects-of centrifugal force.

The inventioh consists of features of construction, arrafigements and combinations of devices hereinafter described and more particularly pointed out'in'the appended claims.

The invention is embodied in the bow illustrated in the accompanying drawing, forming part hereof, in which- Figure 1 is a side elevation; Fig. 2 is a plan of one end of the shaft 8 Fig. 3 is a side elevation of a detail of the connection to the sliding bow; Fig. 4 is an end elevation of parts shown in Fig. 1; and Fig. 5 a side and an end elevation of the diamond frame.

The sliding how should never leave the wire and should not exert an excessive pres sure thereon; Owing to the vertical curvature of the wire in all known methods of suspension, the motion of the bow along the same is not in a straight line, and ,when a curve is reached, there arises a centrifugal force proportional directly to the square of the train-speed and to the weights of the bow and parts rigidly attached thereto and inversely to the radii of curvature of their motion. prior sliding bows, becomes so large as to produce excessive pressures on the wire where the radius of curvature of motion is short and the wire is convex 11 word; and the bow leaves the wire where the radius of curvature is short and the. wircis convex downward.

According to the present invention, the connections between the car and the trolley wire are divided into two parts, the lower and heavier of which move more nearly in straight lines while the upper. and lighter parts follow more closely the variations in height of the suspended conductor or trolley wire.

With high speeds, the force, withv Referring to the drawing by reference symbols, the reference character D marks an ordinary diamond frame, suitably mounted on a car as usual.

, The parts below the line A--B in Figs. 1 and 5 may be of any known. or otherwise suitable form and operat ion.

Near the upper end of the diamond frame l), the tubes thereof terminate in castings 20, to which extensions 18 are suital'ily attached to form continuations of the tubes. To the upper ends of the extensions 18 are hinged the bars 17 by pins 15, and the bars 17 are hinged by the pins 14 to the tubes 12 (but one is shown in Figs. 1 and 2) while the eX-' tensions 18 are hinged to the same tubes or arms 12 by means of the sleeves 19 and pins 16, to allow the tubes 12 to slide up and down relatively to the upper end of the diamond frame as the last-named is raised and lowered. At their upper ends, the tubes 12 I The arms 5 are fastened by pins or otherwise, the

hubs 7 being fast to the shaft 8 in a rigid manner. 1 The upper ends of the arms 5 have castings 4 attached thereto, and thdcastings 4arc connected in a hinged manner by pins 2 with. the sliding how 1. The tubes 5 [2, they carry metal rods 6, 13 to assist in carrying current. The shaft 8 is connected with the tubes 12 by means of a coiled spring 10 at each end of the shaft, each spring having one end secured to the tube or shafts and the other end secured to the tube 12 or hearing S) adjacent to that end of the shaft 8. The springs 10 are wound and under compression to lift the how 1 toward the trolley wire. Inside of the springs 10 are other sprir'iu s 11, which act in a direction the reverse of. that in'which the springs 10 act. The springs 11 have one end made fast to the shaft 8 by eyes, and the other ends of said sprin s 1l extend underneath. the tubes 12 or the mar- 'ings 9, and said springs 11 are so wound and under compression that as tho'shaft 8 is rotated by the downward motion of the radial arms 5, they exert less and less pressure on the radial arms 5, and even cease altogether to act thereon.

The sliding bow 1 is built up of three elm hnels 3, preferably of aluminum, which are riveted together in such wise that the upper surface of the middle channel is somewhat lower than the upper surfaces of the two Hill.

side channels, thus providing a gutter serving as a receptacle for a lubricant.

The operation of the above-descrilmd devices is as follows: The springs 10 lift the sliding bow 1 at all times, while the springs 11 are active only while the radial arms 5 point steeply upwards; when the arms 5 are in their lower positions, the springs 11 are idle. With a high train speed and a head wind and the arms 5 pointing haclnvard, the

wind-pressure tends to press the arms F and the how 1. down. But if the arms 5 point forward, the wind pressure, in such case, tends to lift the arms and the how. in the first case, the remaining, range of motion downward of the arms is reduced, while in the latter case the remaining range of the upward motion of said. parts is reduced. The

ollice. ol the springs 11 is to minimize or re- 0 duce the almve-referred-to reduc on in the available range ofmotron of the arms 5. he

use of two oppositely'acting springs at each arm 5 permits, with a given change ol con- ,tact-prcssure, a larger range of relative motion vertically of shaft and how than could be obtained with only one spring at each arm. As the diamond frame. expands and con tracts vertically, the tubes 12 slide in the sleeves 19 named.

When the ll'lCtl'lOtl of suspension of the contact-wire, its size, and the maximum train speed are given, the length of the radial ai'i'ns 5, the required stillness and size of the main springs 10 and the reverse springs 11,

well as the needed static contact-pr xsure to secure smooth running of the how without excessive pressure can be calculated.

l/Vhat 1 claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is In electric railways, a diamond frame extended beyond its apex, links pivolally connected with said extended parts and with iachother, arms pivotally connected with the upper ends ol" said links and slidahl connected with the ditnnoml-l'rame, a shall jonn naled in said arms and spring-connected therewith, and arms rigidly connected with raid shalt, combined with a sliding how pivotally connectcd with the iztzt-namml arms.

2. in electric railn'ays two diamond l ramcs one ahove the other, tnhcs pivotailv connected with the apex ol' the upper diamond-frame and slidahlv connected wit h the pivots hctwccn said l'ramcs, a shaltj nrnalcd on said tnhcs, main and rcvcrsc-s irings for connecting said shalt with said tithes, arms rigidly connected with said shall, and a slid ing how pivotally connected with said arms, in comhination.

3. in electric rail\\'a 's, arms Forming cxtensions of the (liainoinldrame, links nivolally connected with said arms and with each other, tubes 12 nivotally connected with said links and slidahly connected with said arms. a shaft ionrnalcd on said. tuhcs, o spring having their ends connected last to said shall, and to said tuhes, oLhcr two 1Hings having each one end last to said shall and th ol hcl' end hearingagainst said tithe and a sliding how connected with said shall, in c'nnhina tion.

Signed at New York cil in the colmt of New York and Htatc ol' New York thi twelfth day o! Scptcnihcr, l) NWT.

Witnesses:

lll oo Mock, it. W. Bannmn. 

